A back to school tradition
This past week we started our 5th official year of homeschooling and it’s one of my favorite things I get to do in this life. It is by no means all rainbows and roses and this week has been hard getting back into it but it is one of the sweetest blessings God has given me by calling me home to teach my kids.
As we start processing each year, we always want to start with clear intentionality and prayer-giving this next year over to God and allowing Him to do the work. One way we do that is through our back to school tradition. It’s a bit different each year but it’s fun no matter the way we celebrate. September McCarthy always says “Mom’s are mood setters” if we have a good attitude and excitement, our kids will follow, if we are walking in dread or a bad attitude, they also will follow. Here’s how we set the mood for the start of the year:
Set the stage
Each year of our homeschool has a theme based on the topics or books we will be covering. We have studied American History, Kinder unit studies, Narnia, Around the World Cultures in the past. This year we are cycling back to American History for an in depth 2-3 year pass through starting with Exploration and Colonies. Because this is our theme this year, I collected things we already had in our house to create a center piece for our dining room table. We school in this spot as well as eat our meals so it’s the place I usually set up. I also have taken over a wall space in our great room that is our bulletin board and this will be where we hang artwork that goes with our units. It currently holds our world map and will until we are finished discussing explorers from Europe, then I’ll replace it with the US Map.
A Special Meal and Words to Bring Life
While the food isn’t important, we always take the time to eat a meal everyone enjoys on this Back to School night (we’ve done breakfast before too). This year we had tacos because we all love them. During the meal, we discuss what our schedule will look like this year, we talk about new pieces of fun curriculum and we publicly go over the goals and affirmations of each child. This year, the kids joined in by affirming their siblings and Maxwell ask them to affirm me (which was very sweet) and it was a sweet time of encouragement as we get ready to start another year. I got this idea a few year ago from Sally Clarkson’s “The Lifegiving Home” where she spoke of affirming each child on their birthdays. While that was always my intention, birthday can be a bit busy and that piece gets forgotten but doing it as we head back to school has proven to be a very profitable time and one that builds us all up as we head into the new year.
Prayer
The final thing we do each year is a time of prayer over our new school year. My husband leads us in a blessing over our homeschool year and it’s such a sweet time and one that gets us ready to head in knowing that God’s presence is in us and through all that we are about to learn and do.
The First Day
On the first day each year, I tape their new grades onto the back of their chairs, set out our new school supplies that usually includes a little something fun and we take first day of school pictures. Then we are off to the races. We usually have a lighter first week as we work our way into a new rhythm and routine but it’s always a great start and a day I look forward to with great anticipation.
What are your first day of school traditions? I’d love to hear whether you homeschool or not because traditions bring excitement to those seasons of transition in our lives.
